To open up democracy, people in poverty must have real power | JRF

How can people who have been excluded from power play an equal role? Claire Ainsley suggests three ideas for reforming democracy.

New plans have been published by the UK Government to give local residents more say in decisions affecting their lives, as part of a wider strategy to strengthen communities and introduce participatory democracy. These are long overdue: we know 14 million people are locked in poverty and a daily struggle to make ends meet, which is simply unacceptable. We also know this problem persists because people on low incomes are overlooked and marginalised.